


The Sweethearts

by CallMeMilady (fairegirl22)



Series: Love Jumps into the Mouth of a Dinosaur [8]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien's such a dweeb, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, An adorable dweeb, F/M, Fluff, SO FLUFFY, Valentine's Day, he tries his best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 11:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13681014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairegirl22/pseuds/CallMeMilady
Summary: The first time Adrien asked Marinette to be his Valentine's ... didn't go as smoothly as he planned.





	The Sweethearts

**Author's Note:**

> This installment is set in the far future of this series when they've been together for a while and moving in together. 
> 
> As always, I wouldn't be able to do this without my dear friends - Letters2Elvinscend, who's a great sounding board, and Izzi456 who fixes all of my grammar mistakes.
> 
> The timeline goes like this:
> 
> 1\. The First Meeting (Part 1)  
> 2\. The Playdate (Part 2)  
> 3\. The Review (Part 6)  
> 4\. The First Kiss (Part 3)  
> 5\. The Heartbreak (Part 4)  
> 6\. The Dinosaur (Part 5)  
> 7\. The Plan (Part 7)  
> 8\. The Sweethearts (Part 8)

Marinette ran her hand through her newly cropped hair, still giddy about how light and soft it felt. There was nothing like losing so many inches to realize just how heavy hair really was. Feeling lighter than air, the sentiment began to immediately plummet the moment she turned the handle into her new apartment, her happiness turning into a low groan of frustration. Between her and the couch sat a truly horrendous number of unpacked boxes. Enough that had she not fallen in love with the carpet when they had been apartment hunting, she wouldn't have even known there was one there. 

Two weeks into the move and there just wasn’t enough time or energy at the end of a long work day to figure out where things needed to go. Marinette pursed her lips while she stepped out of her ballet flats.

Today was Sunday and she spent her morning relaxing with her hair appointment and having brunch with Alya, but now she had to get to work. The cardboard continued to hold its accusing stare, with the packing tape still in menacingly clean lines. 

Marinette eyed the piles of boxes stacked around the apartment. At the very least, she tried to soothe herself, the cardboard monsters were semi-organized by the room they needed to be unpacked in. Grimly, she turned to the kitchen where the most progress on unpacking had already occured. Even with the necessity of cooking, however, a tiny box with the label ‘coffee mugs’ still winked mockingly at her from the island counter. 

She was feeling generous so she'd leave that box to Adrien. After all he should have the satisfaction of completing the rooms’ unboxing. Really, she was a saint. Her quick snag of the heavy box clearly marked ‘living room’ that was on the kitchen counter had absolutely nothing to do with the hell of organizing Adrien’s pun mug collection. Definitely not.  

Heaving the box over to the coffee table should not have taken the effort that Marinette had put into it, and yet there was something about Sundays that always seemed a bit draining. Placing the gigantic eyesore down in the first empty space she could find, Marinette grabbed a box cutter from on top of another box labeled ‘pillows.’ Now why they deemed it fit to live in an apartment devoid of throw pillows was another long and terrible story best left to nights filled with copious amounts of alcohol and likely quite a bit of gratuitous sobbing. 

With practical, practiced motions Marinette cut into the evil tape - perhaps with a bit too much glee than one should reserve for tape cutting - and opened the top to discover whatever treasures (or knick knacks) had been stuffed inside. 

Surprisingly, as much as one could be surprised opening boxes they packed a month ago, they were photo albums. 

Marinette grinned and sat down as she pulled a random album out, telling herself this was an age-old tradition enacted whenever anyone found such a treat and definitely not a universe-wide form of procrastination. 

The album itself was a rather thin paper booklet, a little worn with age but thankfully not torn, shaped like a lopsided red heart and tied together with two fraying ribbons on the left side. There was something illegible scrawled on the cover, but Marinette could imagine that she could just make out the year the memories were made.

She had already given into the procrastination of hours cooing on the floor, but then the apartment door unlocked with a divisive  _ click _ . Peeking up over the couch, Marinette was just in time to see Adrien enter their apartment. Their eyes locked and with matching smiles as he greeted her. 

“Hey, look what I found!” she waved the booklet back and forth in the air as Adrien walked towards her while stopping momentarily to slip off his shoes.

He picked up the pillow box from the couch, wrinkling his nose at it as if its continued existence offended him and set it on the ground as he found a place next to her. But his eyebrows were raised, meaning he had clearly not fully understood the gem she had found. 

“You cut your hair,” Adrien said instead, rather unhelpfully. 

“Oh right,” Marinette laughed. “I almost forgot I was surprising you with that.”

Adrien reached out to brush away a stray bang, looking at her in a way that always made her feel slightly breathless. “You look beautiful.” 

Marinette smiled, a light blush still staining her cheeks after all these years, as she pecked him on the lips. “Thank you. But more importantly...” 

“You'll always be the most important thing to me, my lady,” Adrien said, instead of looking down at the album. As always, he sounded heart wrenchingly sincere and if Marinette looked closely enough she was sure she could pick up a little awe still in his voice. Her kitty, still silly as ever. 

Marinette let a tiny smile play on her lips before playfully huffing and tugging Adrien’s arm, trying to redirect his attention. “Do you even remember what this is?” 

Adrien reached out to take the worn heart from her hands and let out a disbelieving laugh as he opened the first page. “I can’t believe I forgot about this.” 

Marinette giggled slightly as she looked at the picture immortalizing their 11 year-old selves. Glued, a bit lopsided in the middle of the front page, was a small photograph of pre-teen Adrien, on one knee with a flower bouquet extended towards a shocked but very pleased Marinette. 

“The first time I asked you to be my Valentine.” Adrien smiled softly in remembrance. 

Marinette leaned her head on his shoulder as he flipped to the next page. “We were so young.”

 

* * *

She was going to be here in a few minutes, and he  _ wasn’t ready. _ An 11 year-old Adrien was frantically running around his room, trying to find Marinette’s bouquet that he misplaced. He just saw it a few minutes ago, he was sure, and no amount of searching under an old pile of discarded legos was enough to make it reappear. This wasn't the first time he'd accidently lost it either since he had gotten them, the flowers seemed to be in the middle of a near constant disappearing act. Now at the absolute worst time they had done it again.

Which is a complete justification for doing something as dramatic and dangerous as climbing his rockwall without a harness to search for them. See? Sensible, thy name is Adrien Agreste. 

He was half way up the wall and about two footholds from a grave mistake when his mom entered the room. 

“Adrien,” she called out cautiously, eyes finally landing on him after a sweep of the room. 

Adrien turned to look at her, keeping his grip tight on the wall. “Mom!” He grinned as he saw her carrying the missing bouquet. “You found them!” 

Isabelle raised a bemused eyebrow, “You gave them to me so you wouldn’t misplace them before Marinette got here.” 

_ Of course he had.  _ Past Adrien was trying to prevent this very scenario. Past Adrien was a genius. 

Adrien slowly climbed down until he could jump off at a safe height. Which was probably still too high for his mom, because she let out a small noise of alarm as he jumped. 

“Please try to refrain from giving me any heart attacks, mon coeur,” Isabelle said as she handed the bouquet to him, moving quickly to straighten out his crooked tie and messy hair as if she feared he'd climb right back up the wall. 

“Thanks mom.” Adrien smiled up at her. He didn’t know what he would do without her. 

Isabelle smiled as the doorbell rang, and suddenly not even the reassuring smile from his mother was enough to calm Adrien’s nerves. Butterflies were swarming and his palms started to sweat. He wasn’t nervous about Marinette herself but rather what she would think. Hopefully she would like it. 

It was going to be the first real time they’ll actually be doing anything that was remotely like being more than friends. It could even be considered romantic...at least he thought it was. Well no, he knew it was, obviously it was because he was about to ask her to be his Valentine. With flowers. In a suit. 

She wouldn't outright laugh at him, but what if she thinks it's stupid? Or that he’s a dork for doing all of this? 

The doorbell rang and suddenly his thoughts were a lot louder and a lot heavier then they'd been while he'd planned this. All of a sudden,  _ everything  _ could go wrong. What if the flowers weren't right? What if it was too soon? What if his  _ tie  _ was a stupid color? Why'd he pick green anyway?! He looked  _ terrible in green! _

As Adrien’s thoughts clouded his head, he barely noticed as his mom led him through the house to the foyer and pushed him to the door, where Marinette was waiting.

In the background, through the noise he noticed Nathalie with a camera in position to take pictures of his first attempt at romance. 

There, in door frame looking prettier than any picture, stood Marinette in a light pink dress with red hearts on the border. She had hair half-up and.... was that  _ lip gloss _ she had on? 

As if a spotlight had turned on, Adrien could swear he saw each little sparkle of her dress. It took him ages to notice that Marinette was looking at him rather oddly. It then took another century to realize that he was still standing in the doorway, preventing her from actually coming inside. He blushed and quickly sidestepped away to let her in. 

Gracefully Mari said nothing and instead turned to the two other occupants in the room. 

“Hi Isabelle, hi Nathalie!” She smiled at them. “Those are lovely flowers, Isabelle. Did Gabriel give them to you for Valentine’s day?”

Isabelle grinned, hiding a small laugh behind her free hand before shooting a pointed look at her son. “No, no,” she said in a light tone filled with humor, “These aren’t for me. Right, Adrien?” 

Adrien sheepishly took the bouquet from his mom, doing his best not to jostle the small flowers that been through enough in the last hour since their delivery. “They’re actually for you, Marinette.” 

Marinette’s smile grew slowly as she took in the bouquet. “For me?” she said softly. 

“Uh, yeah.” Adrien’s blush was hot on his face as he saw his mom motioning at him, like a parent at their child's first recital. With a great amount of embarrassment, but not a small amount of happiness at Marinette’s growing excitement, he knelt down on one knee with less grace then he would like. All the practice he did earlier couldn’t help how fast his heart was beating. 

He cleared his throat, swallowing the lump of nervousness he had. Looking up and extending the flowers towards Marinette, he smiled. “Would you be my Valentine?” 

A flash went off, but neither paid attention to it.

Marinette’s smile was as radiant as the sun. “Of course I will, Adrien. I’ll always be your Valentine.” She took the flowers from his hands and helped him get up. The camera flashed again as she kissed his cheek, leaving some glossy residue on his flushed face.

And so the first official Valentine’s, the first romantic step in their relationship, was caught on camera. 

* * *

 

 

Adrien turned to the next page in the scrapbook where there were pictures of him leading Marinette to the gazebo in the backyard of Agreste Manor. He could still distinctly remember it being decorated with lights, fresh flowers from the Agreste garden, and heart confetti on the table. He went with his mother shopping at a mall, a rare occurrence in itself, and found the confetti and a teddy bear he knew she would love.

Marinette gasped, her eyes lighting up as they flipped to the next page of the scrapbook. “Look at how cute you were trying to be, pulling my chair out,” she teased, playfully nudging him. 

Adrien pouted back, the same humor lacing his voice, “I wasn’t trying. I was totally cute and confident, too. Just as confident and sauve as I am now.” 

“Confident?  _ Suave? _ ” Marinette threw her head back in laughter. “You only slightly improved on your romancing skills.”

“My lady!” Adrien’s jaw dropped as he protested. “I have great romancing skills. I romanced you, didn’t I?”

Marinette smiled mischievously. “I wouldn’t say that you romanced me. Your first attempts at romancing me were quite terrible, kitty.” She leaned closer to him and delicately placed her hand on his chest. “You’re just lucky I already loved you.” 

Adrien pursed his lips and turned his head to the side, watching her from his peripheral vision. “I’m hurt, I don’t want to kiss you.” 

“Oh, you don’t?” Marinette walked her fingers up to gently turn his face towards her. It was clear that he was trying not to smile.

“You don’t deserve any kisses after those hurtful comments,” Adrien said while wrapping an arm around her. 

Marinette moved in to seemingly kiss him anyway, but stopped at a breathtaking distance. “So you won't kiss me today?” 

Adrien gulped but stayed firm. “No, I won’t.”

“Are you sure about that, kitty?” Marinette said lightly. “Think you can hold out?” 

Adrien’s eyes fluttered closed and he hummed. “Well, I didn’t say you couldn’t kiss me.” 

Marinette smiled as she closed her eyes and cupped his face closer to hers. Her thumb gently caressed his face. “Is that right?” 

Her nose nudged his and he let out a low groan before giving in and kissing her, ignoring the way her lips turned up in a triumphant smile. Struggling for an upper hand that was slowly pulling out of his reach, Adrien pulled her on top of him as he leaned back on the couch. Marinette simply giggled, as if this was where she had always planned to be. 

“Happy Valentine's Day,” she whispered as he continued to chase her lips

“Let's have a million more, Bugaboo,” he answered. 

Looking back on memories was great, but looking forward to creating new ones together - now that is even better.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys, I swear that I've been writing the piece that follows The Plan...it's just been a struggle to get it done. But Letters2Elvinscend suggested a Valentine's one-shot and this took on a life of it's own. I'm halfway done with the next installment (which I actually wanted to post before the Vday one but it just didn't want to happen). Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoyed this! I'm not the best at responding to reviews quickly but I love reading all of them and will respond to all of them eventually, so comments and kudos are appreciated :) 
> 
> If for some reason you'd want to find me on tumblr, I'm callmemilady22.tumblr.com...if for some reason you wonder why I don't reblog a lot of Miraculous stuff it's because I have a friend who doesn't want to be spoiled for ML S2 until it comes on netflix (which is two months late by now T.T) 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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